My ex left me for a millionaire and didn’t send a single dollar for our daughter for three years. Then, out of nowhere, he mailed her a dirty old doll. I almost threw it away… until I woke up at 3 a.m. and saw my little girl pulling something out of its stomach: “Save me. I’m being held captive.”

At 6:30 a.m. Sunday morning, the glass skyscraper of Sterling Global Communications rose like a jagged black needle into the gray, rain-swept sky of downtown Los Angeles.

The street level was quiet, save for a few delivery trucks and street sweepers preparing for the morning traffic.

Inside the plumbing van parked two blocks away, Marcus was logged into the building’s environmental control system via a wireless satellite uplink.

"Rachel Collins is currently inside the building," Marcus reported, pointing to an infrared heat signature map on his monitor. "She moved her security team to Floor 70 at 5:00 a.m. after her canyon guards reported the B3 breach. She knows Harrison is gone, and she’s rushing to complete the digital asset transfer before the banks open on Monday."

"How do we get to Floor 70 without triggering elevator locks?" I asked, tying my hair back into a tight braid.

Harrison sat up against the wall of the van, wrapped in an insulated thermal jacket. He looked frail, but his mind was sharp and steady now, freed from the continuous IV sedation.

"The executive elevator on Basement Level 2," Harrison said, his voice firming up. "It’s a private hydraulic lift built exclusively for the Sterling family. It runs on an isolated analog circuit that bypasses the central security mainframe."

"How do we bypass the biometric scanner on the 70th floor safe?" Marcus asked.

Harrison pulled off his right boot and reached into the inner lining, pulling out a small, flat silver keycard wrapped in thick lead foil.

"Rachel thought I was completely out of it," Harrison offered a faint, bitter smile. "Two months ago, while she was arguing with her estate lawyer in my room, she dropped her master bypass key onto the floor. I hid it inside my sock before her guards came back in."

Marcus took the keycard, his eyes wide with admiration. "Harrison, you magnificent bastard."

"I’m coming with you," Harrison insisted, trying to stand up.

"No," I placed my hands on his shoulders, pushing him gently back down onto the bench. "You can barely stand. If Rachel’s guards see you, they’ll shoot you on sight. You stay in this van with Marcus’s remote comms. Marcus and I are going up."